5 Homeowner-Approved Perks Of Installing A Video Doorbell

An interesting quirk of the modern technological landscape is that you may hear more about certain developments than you see them in person. For example, video doorbells from brands like Ring have been a big talking point for years, but whether or not you've personally invested in them is largely down to where you live and who you know. If you haven't had any direct experience with video doorbells, you could be missing the proverbial boat on perks like visitor notifications and front-step security monitoring.

Whether or not video doorbells are an absolute good is a matter of debate, and some users have decided to disconnect their Ring doorbells after a period of use for one reason or another. All the same, video doorbells have proven popular with homeowners from all over, and if you find yourself on the fence about the matter, considering the elements that have helped them earn that popularity may help to tip you toward a purchase.

One particularly nice thing about most video doorbells is that, compared to a regular doorbell, they are very easy to set up. Traditional chime doorbells need to be wired directly into your home's power grid, a job that can only be safely handled by an electrician. If the doorbell breaks or malfunctions, that's another call you have to make to the electrician to fix or remove it.

While there are more elaborate video doorbells that are installed similarly to traditional ones, there are also completely standalone devices that you can stick just about anywhere. Rather than your home grid, they draw power either from rechargeable batteries or solar panels, which generally last a good few years, so they don't require any invasive wiring or electrician calls. This is particularly nice if your home is a rental property and you're concerned about drilling holes into the walls to install mounts; brands like Ring sell no-drill mounts that you can stick to the wall next to your door using special adhesive pads. Plus, even if your house is on the older side with a slightly outdated power grid, you can still install a brand new 2K video doorbell just as easily.

Here's a classic scenario: you've got a visitor to your home who rings your doorbell, but you're in the bathroom, basement, backyard, or some other out-of-the-way segment of your home and don't hear the chime. Now your visitor is just standing awkwardly at the front stoop, unsure if they should ring again, and you're none the wiser. Video doorbells help you to avoid this particular scenario by adding an extra layer of notification to the doorbell process.

Most video doorbells can be set up to send push notifications to your smartphone either when the camera detects a visitor, or specifically when the chime is pushed. This way, assuming you have your phone on your person or nearby, you'll always know when someone's at the door, even if you don't hear them. If the doorbell also has an intercom installed, you can remote into it using your phone to greet your visitor and let them know you'll be right up to let them in. This feature also works in reverse, letting you know when someone leaves the house so, for instance, you'll know that your kids left for the bus stop on time.

Long gone are the days when every package delivery necessitates in-person interaction with a courier. Unless you've got something big or sensitive that needs a signature, you can usually just leave instructions when placing orders for where to leave the box. Unfortunately, these instructions don't always go heeded, and you may end up with a courier impatiently ringing your doorbell when they don't need to. This is where a video doorbell's detection and automation features make themselves useful.

One user on the r/smarthome subreddit has engaged in a bit of clever automation by having their video doorbell automatically answered by their Alexa assistant, who asks the visitor about the purpose of their visit. If they're a courier, Alexa then rattles off the care and handling instructions for the delivery, all without actually sounding the doorbell chime and bothering the user. Conversely, some video doorbell models can detect the presence of a package in their viewing range and send you a notification so you can grab it instead of leaving it outside all day.

In a similar vein to the occasional under-informed courier, your home may be visited by an obnoxious solicitor selling some random product or service you probably don't want or need. Unlike a courier, there's generally no benefit to interacting with this particular type of visitor, and it would probably be in everyone's best interest if you just disregarded them entirely and let them walk away on their own. With a regular doorbell, they could stand out there ringing it over and over again, but with a video doorbell, you can either disable their ability to do that, or politely inform them to hit the bricks.

Using your smartphone, you can temporarily turn off both the chime and notifications on your video doorbell entirely if you need some definitive quiet time, especially if your home has easily disturbed pets or napping children. If you're worried about missing something important, you can leave the notification on and the chime off, remoting in to tell the solicitor you're not interested. If you're using a Ring doorbell specifically, Alexa can once again pitch in, telling the solicitor off in your place.

Arguably one of the biggest draws of video doorbells for any user is the home security angle. If a bad actor is trying to get at your front door, whether to break into your home or swipe packages off your stoop, a video doorbell is often placed at the perfect angle and elevation to capture their face on camera. Not only is recorded footage stored locally on the camera and in backup devices in your home, but you can also subscribe to have it backed up to a cloud storage service, so you can retrieve it from anywhere and forward it to the authorities.

Besides simply recording potential bad actors, video doorbells also allow you to be a little more proactive about protecting your home. You can remote into the camera to shout them away, remotely trigger other lights, cameras, and countermeasures in your smart home setup, and alert other homes in your neighborhood to the presence of a burglar, as well as immediately notify police. There is little a thief could do about any of this besides trying to destroy or steal the camera, but video doorbells have extra security failsafes built in that automatically send alerts in either circumstance.